Purina fortiflora and feline herpes

Hi all, new to the forums! So, jumping right in. My almost four month old kitten, Orion, has feline herpes. I adopted him a little under a month ago. We also share the same birthday, well, minus the year of course. He had a cloudy eye and the shelter told me his eye was "nothing to worry about." I felt a connection with him despite my worries it was herpes and hoped it was really just trauma as they had told me.

Unfortunately, it was indeed herpes, and he had a flare up two days after I brought him home from the stress and such. I took him to the vet to establish and talk more about herpes. He was put on doxy for 14 days and did well on it but three days off and he was back to sneezing. He had a followup a few days ago but the vet and I felt he was ok despite the slight sneezing, but he's been getting more gunky, so I made a phone call. Vet wanted to try four weeks of antibiotics this time and I pick it up tomorrow. He's eating and drinking great and using the bathroom with no diarrhea or anything. So, now here's my question, finally, :lol3: Why would she recommend he take Purina fortiflora? Do any owners of feline herpes kitties use this or know the benefits this would have for my little one? I read online it's used to entice cats to eat and/or for IBS, stomach issues, etc. He's already on 250 mg twice a day of L-lysine, but it's only been a few days, and I haven't noticed a difference yet, but I wasn't expecting that so early. I am planning on mixing his antibiotic in his food with the L-lysine as the vet said this kind of antibiotic could be put in his wet food as long as he eats it all, which he does. If I decide to use the Purina fortiflora, that will be another thing to mix in, though I'd do the lysine and antibiotics in the morning and the lysine and fortiflora in the evening.

So, if you've mustered through my whole post, any advice for a first time herpes kitty parent? I was previously the parent of a 19 year old, which I adopted when he was about three months old, but other than ear mites as a kitten that led to ear issues on and off, he was relatively healthy til his last year when he started to fail in health and had to be put to sleep. So I do have prior cat experience, just not with the herpes virus.

I apologize if this has been asked before, but thought I'd introduce myself and start a new thread.

So...FortiFlora, not my favorite probiotic. It does seem to have an appealing taste to most cats, though

Now...probiotics in general
The thought is that a healthy immune system starts in the gut. So, a good probiotic is certainly NOT a bad thing and, many members here use them.

Here's a link to one brand that has been recommended to be by a few other members here

Notice...this is a HUMAN probiotic with several strains of good bacteria. (FortiFlora only has one.) A kitten wouldn't need a whole capsule. If you wanted to try this one, I could put you in touch with another team member that can help with dosing.

On another note...
Famciclovir is an antiviral medication that can be give to help with herpes flare ups.

Idoxuridine and Cidofovir are two antiviral eye drops than can be used as well.

I don't think I would use an antibiotic alone without using one of the three medications listed above.

Also, if your little one turns out to be one of the cats that has chronic long term flare ups (meaning he has flare up reoccurrence a few days to a week after stopping meds and has to repeatedly be treated), there is a medication called Polyprenyl Immunostimulat (PI).

I call PI liquid gold as it is expensive (around $100 for a 10 mL vial...medication is given orally over 10 days.) BUT, has resulted in 100% cure in the 2 cats I have treated with it. I am contemplate using it on a third.

There is also another antibiotic called Veraflox that was specifically made to treat secondary bacterial infections associated with Herpes.

Thanks so much for the info!

Orion is taking human L-lysine. In fact, it's from the Now company you recommended the probiotic in. I would appreciate your help in getting in touch with that team member on dosing. That makes sense about a healthy gut as I've heard that for humans as well.

I hope and pray he won't be a chronic long term flarer, but thank you so much for telling me about that liquid gold medicine! If he does become chronic, I will ask my vet about it. I would definitely cough up $100 if it has the possibility of a 100% cure. I want him as healthy and happy as he can be, and as a side, I wouldn't mind not having to go around cleaning up green boogie splatter off everything, including my person, lol.

I may try the famciclovir route before that, but again, would gladly pay that if it made him better. My vet hasn't recommended using any antiviral to me with the antibiotics, but I will bring that up if this next round of antibiotics fails.

I have heard about the eye drops on another herpes post, but I'm not sure I'm comfortable doing that, and he is a wriggler, even wrapped in a towel tucked in the corner of my arm. His symptoms are more nasal than runny or crusty eyes. He only gets very little clear fluid from his non cloudy eye. No crusting at all. The cloudy eye he had when I adopted him is permanently scarred, but it doesn't affect his ability to play and get around.

I also try to keep the stress down. It's just the two of us here in my apartment. Other than not liking the vacuum or when the landscapers cut the grass, there isn't much I don't think that would cause him excessive stress. He also does pretty well at the vets, but other than annuals, I'm going to speak with my vet on possibly not having to bring him in just to decide about medication choices.

He's overall a very playful, decently well-behaved kitten. He has very loud purring sessions and chirps a lot when playing or when I talk to him, so despite the, which I sure he finds, annoying sneezing, I feel he's a happy kitten. I've spoiled him rotten with milk rings and towers and he loves cardboard scratchers. I just want him happy and healthy.

The probiotics are to add healthy bacteria back into his system after a long round of antibiotics and not specifically because of the herpes . There is a good thread on lysine use and doses here but I can' t make links you could search or scrool around for it [emoji]128578[/emoji]We have a whole litter with it and a 10 month old cat who just picked it up from them[emoji]9785[/emoji]️

Thanks for your reply howmany! I totally forgot about the antibiotics and stomach issues, which I should have known myself since I get that way on certain antibiotics. I have followed a great lysine thread on here prior to this post of my own, and it's where I got all the info on his current lysine treatment .

I've decided to go with the Purina fortiflora since it will only be while he's on the antibiotics just to be safe. He's got a good tummy otherwise and has no issues there so not sure I want to put him on, or if it's even neccesary, any sort of maintenance dose of probiotic.

I will speak with my vet further if he seems to be a chronic flarer. Fingers crossed he won't be. Today is day two of antibiotics and just like last time, huge improvement already. Only sneezed twice today with minimal to no grossness. Yay for that!